Day 102: San Pedro de Atacama to Antofagasta with car trouble

Today was dominated by car trouble – in the end it turned out that the rubber mount for the rear drive shaft had worn out so that the drive shaft clanked when gas was applied for acceleration. At first we thought it was tire imbalance from an inch of mud on the undercarriage. We stopped by the side of the road and removed the mud from the wheel wells. Not enough! We stopped at a car cleaning shop in Calama. With all the power hoses, it took nearly 4 hours to fully remove all the mud. The car looked like new but the clanking continued and progressively got worse.

We did not want to break down in the Chilean desert. We pushed through some 200KM to Antofagasta, the second largest city in Chile and on the Pacific Coast. We contacted Porsche South America in Miami and Porsche Chile in Santiago, some 1400KM away. They helped with the diagnosis but Porsche service was only in Santiago. We stopped at a Jeep/Dodge/VW for their 4-wheel drive expertise – when we were thinking that it was still in the power transfer unit. The manager verified that the problem was the drive shaft mount, which probably broke driving over the rocky tracks across southwest Bolivia. Disabling the rear wheels allowed the car to move slowly, but not for purposes of a 1400KM drive. So the dealer made arrangements to truck the Cayenne to Santiago Porsche. We checked into a nice new hotel with ocean views and booked flights to Santiago for Friday.

Justin took over making the arrangements. The Jeep service manager was extremely helpful and kind, and even drove us to the hotel. We had a nice visit with him over drinks. Justin’s Santiago friend, Pato, made arrangements on the Santiago side and for a golf date on Saturday. We appreciated the graciousness and warmth offered to us.

It is all part of the adventure and once we made it to Antofogasta the apparent automotive disaster resolved itself into an inconvenience and money. We made it to sea level, in a nice city and slept soundly. We did not take many pictures today.